A run around Stanton Suffolk

For my long 10 mile training run today I ventured out to the village of Stanton in Suffolk.

Stanton is around 9 miles North East of Bury St Edmunds. It is believed that the village has been occupied continuously for over 2,000 years since Roman times. Evidence for this is that it is close to the Peddars Way and another Roman Road known as number 330 which ran from Colchester to Bildeston. Apparently a Roman Villa was once sited in an area of Stanton known as Stanton Chare.

St John the Baptist

St John The Baptist

Today the fairly major A 143 road cuts Stanton some what in two! For many years Stanton was two villages Stanton St John and Stanton All Saints. On one side of the busy road stands Stanton St John which has a roofless church which is maintained by the Historic Churches Fund.The graveyard is evidently still used for burials. There are far fewer houses here but this side of the road is where Stanton Chare is situated.

Duke St Stanton

Stanton Village

From my run it was clear that roads used to join the two villages together but the the present day A143 has obliterated most of the evidence. However  Duke Street can be followed from the All Saints side of the village and then it continues on the St Johns Side.The bulk of the modern day village is based around the All Saints Church. The population today is around 2,900.

Stanton Chare

Historic Churches Fund Signboard

MY other reason for visiting Stanton apart from wanting to explore a lovely village was to also visit the home of many of my ancestors. From exploring my family history I was aware that my grandfather was born here. However further research has shown that there is fairly long line on my paternal side who lived here at least back to my great, great, great, grandfather who was born here in 1811. I have yet to get any further back but it is possible that further generations also lived here in Stanton.  As for what they did in Stanton it would appear that the vast majority of them toiled the land and were agricultural labourers.

Duke St was of interest as this is where my ancestors used to live but I don't know if the house survives.
My great , great grandfather had 12 children  with his wife and he was born in to a family of nine children himself. So the village of Stanton has a certain pull when it comes to exploring my family history. I have only really scratched the surface on my ancestoral history in the village of Stanton.

Stanton Windmill

The weather continues to be settled and today was again wonderful for running. A pleasant breeze was to be had when running in one direction which acted to cool me down. My run was very much a stop start tourist run as I stopped again and again to photo the many places of interest in Stanton. It was constantly in my thoughts that 200 years ago my forefathers had been present in this village and working the fields. Despite the stop start nature of the run I did my 10 miles in 1hr 25 mins and 43 seconds for an average of 8.34 miles. I'll take that. It felt good and I didn't push it.


Stanton Windmill is a postmill type in that everything turns on a single post. This is the only windmill in Suffolk now producing flour. Virtually everywhere in Suffolk would have had a windmill to grind corn in the 18th and 19th century. Wheras  there were 500 windmills now we are down to about 70 in the county.

A memorable run.